Power outage review sent to PUB

Hydro proposes acquiring additional generation for next winter

Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro has submitted its report on January’s massive power outage to the Public Utilities Board (PUB), a document that includes four key recommendations the provincial Crown corporation is prioritizing.

Meeting with reporters Monday at its St. John’s office, Hydro president and CEO Ed Martin said outages that affected much of Newfoundland were caused by unrelated events, adding the review looked for common threads but found none.

Hydro will prioritize overhauling gas turbines in Hardwoods near Paradise and in Stephenville and will propose acquiring additional generation capacity before next winter — up to 100 megawatts. Martin said the latter goal could be achieved through the addition of a gas turbine and accessing generation from large industrial customers.

Work to replace 230-kilovolt breakers will be accelerated during this year’s maintenance season, and Hydro’s integrated critical spares strategy will also be completed.

Martin, who is also president of Hydro’s parent company Nalcor Energy, said rolling blackouts should become a thing of the past, though he admitted that can not be said with 100 per cent certainty.

However, he said Hydro is doing all it can to make sure that’s the case. He also made note of a recommendation in the report to formalize how Hydro informs the public about rolling blackouts.

The deadline for submitting the report was Monday. Martin said the PUB’s external consultant, Liberty Consulting Group, will meet with Hydro Wednesday.